(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ATM operation supporting system for managing the number of bills (stock amount) in automatic-teller machines installed in a financial institution such as a bank to optimize an amount of money in each of the automatic-teller machines.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In general, a clerk in charge collects cash from automatic-teller machines [hereinafter referred to as ATM (Automatic Teller Machines) or an automatic machines] installed in a financial institution such as a bank, and replenishes the ATM with bills.
For example, in the case where the clerk in charge replenishes an ATM with bills, a sequence of operations (1) to (9), which will be described below, have to be performed. That is, (1) opening a back door, (2) switching the ATM to an inactive state, (3) removing a bill cassette, (4) installing a replenishing bill cassette into the ATM in lieu of the original bill cassette, (5) operating an operator control panel so as to replenish a stacker in the ATM with bills from in the replenishing bill cassette, (6) removing the replenishing bill cassette from the ATM, (7) installing the original bill cassette into the ATM, (8) switching the ATM to a transaction acceptable state, and (9) closing the back door.
The number of bills to be used for replenishing the ATM or the number of bills to be collected from the ATM, as well as the time to carry out a bill replenishment/collection operation, usually depend on the experience and intuition of the clerk. In practice, the clerk is called by the ATM at the time when the cash in the ATM runs short, and the clerk then replenishes the ATM with bills. In ATMs generally used, when the bill cassette (or an ATM cassette) is removed from the ATM while it is in the transaction acceptance state, an error will arise, which in turn results in an ATM failure. To prevent such a problem, the ATM is switched to an inactive condition, as previously described as step (2), when the bill cassette is removed from the ATM.
FIG. 43 (a flow chart: steps S211 to S218) shows the flow of processing to be executed before the clerk replenishes the ATM with bills or collects bills therefrom in the manner as previously described.
As shown in FIG. 43, when none of the ATMs are in a near-end or near-full state (a negative judgment is made in step S212) while the ATMs are performing transaction (step S211), and the current time is not the time for the clerk to replenish the ATMs with bills (a negative judgment is made in step S213), the processing returns to step S211 so as to allow the ATMs to continue performing ordinary transactions.
When the clerk realizes that the time has came to replenish the ATMs with bills (a positive judgment is made in step S213), that clerk replenishes each of the ATMs with bills according to the previously-described procedures (1) to (9) (step S214).
When a certain ATM enters either a near-end or near-full state (a positive judgment is made in step S212) and the clerk has realized it (a positive judgment is made in step S215) that clerk replenishes the ATM with bills according to the procedures (1) to (9) if the ATM is in a near-end state, or collects bills therefrom if the ATM is in a near-full state, performing both in substantially the same manner (step S218).
When a certain ATM enters a near-end or near-full state (a positive judgment is made in step 212), the clerk has not realized it (a negative judgment is made in step S215), and the ATM is not in an inactive state (a negative judgment is made in step S216), the ATM is automatically switched to an inactive state (step S217) and waits for a clerk until the clerk detects the near-end or near-full state of the ATM and replenishes the ATM with bills or collects bills therefrom.
The near-end state used herein means the state in which there is a risk of the execution of operations (i.e., a transaction) being hindered because of a shortage of bills in the ATM; namely, the state which requires a resupply of bills. In contrast, the near-full state used herein means the state in which there is a risk of the execution of operations (i.e., a transaction) being hindered because of the excessive storage of bills in the ATM; namely, the state which requires the collection of bills.
As described above, the clerk in charge conventionally manages the bills stored in the ATM, which results in a great burden on the clerk. Particularly, the burden on the clerk increases accordingly as the number of ATMs increases.
Where a plurality of ATMs are installed in an automatic machine area, each ATM has different amounts of received and withdrawn money. The ATMs from which a smaller amount of money has been withdrawn may have an increase in the amount of unused cash. To cope with such a situation, the clerk in charge also performs optimization of the amount of cash remaining in each ATM, which in turn results in a much greater burden on the clerk in charge.
Recently, various types of financial institutions have utilized an increased number of ATMs so as to perform transaction with customers, and larger amounts of cash have been handled by the ATMs. Under these circumstances, it has been desired to construct a system for supporting the operations of the ATMs without relying on the clerk in charge, so as to ease the operational burden on the clerk and to realize efficient utilization of cash.